Session: Paper Prototype

Reflective Journal – Entry #5

Wayne tells me it was not a good day; it was the kind of day that if he would have found a gun beside his bed, he would have shot himself. “But for what” he adds “so then I’m not allowed to go nowhere, cannot rise, cannot fall, they call it the Limbo”(cit.).
…Sounds a lot like prison to me.

Andre teaches me how to use the softwares and machine to produce badges, and tells me his story with a smile on his face and resolution in his heart, even if he might stay in jail for 10 years.

LEARNING

People like Andre are role models, for inmates and for us. Keep them in mind when you’re hitting a wall and feeling you cannot do it anymore.

Jeet came back – I spent time with him from noon until 3pm going through all the work done in the past lessons, building the personas, creating the storyboard for that personas, and filling up the design brief.

Quite surprisingly he fought through the process but he went through it; the design brief ended up to be an anti-theft bag for thieves. It was all going towards a possible good direction when Erika (Renedo Illaregi, researcher for Makeright) came over and shut it down with the motivation “We cannot have a bag for thieves”(cit.). 
I didn’t want to discredit her in front of his eyes, and I didn’t want him to feel worthless (he actually did a good job). So I kind of stayed there and said nothing – not proud, not happy for my actions.

DISCOMFORT

Not being able to express thoughts.

LEARNING

I should express my opinion and stand up for it – even when it contradicts authority. But do it respectfully and diplomatically. 

Session: Paper Prototypes

I facilitate people creating their paper prototypes for the bags and we had a common feedback round.
People have hard time commenting – they say positive things and in a proper way, just not often at all.
 

• Both Conor and Jeet got shut down by Erika because they didn’t follow the brief and directions properly, and they both kind of shut down for the rest of the lesson (Jeet had to leave earlier).

LEARNING

Do NOT shut them down. 
Speak frankly and nicely.

• Jeet included “homosexual” in the persona description because “I want to do justice to everybody in the room, Pras* included” (cit.). And then he added: “ You know, Miss, he’s gay…”.

  *Pras (Gunasekera, researcher for Makeright)